Artist Jason Aldean, and his hit 2012 songs "Fly Over States" and "Dirt Road Anthem"
Photo courtesy: Carrie Allen Tipton
I read the article Country Music Hollers Back at Hip Hop by
Carrie Allen Tipton. It discussed how country music puts a special value on
love and kindness against materialism, social status, hierarchy issues and
false value systems. This is different than you would find in the city setting.
I agree with the agreement in this article in how it describes the country
music genre. It says that country music
is defined by three main things: who it fans are, who performs it, where it
enjoys the most cultural resonance. This
is truly represented in all of the top country songs of 2012. These are Jason
Aldean’s “Fly-Over States,” Kip Moore’s “Something ‘Bout a Truck,” Montgomery
Gentry’s “Where Come From,” and lastly, my personal favorite, Aldean’s “Tattoos
on This Town.”
After reading an article from CNN by Mark Osler, I
learned that there are new laws in effect that deal with marijuana use. These
came into effect since the presidential election last Thursday. The residents
of Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize the use of marijuana.
However, the large controversy is pot is still very much illegal under the
federal law. The Obama administration will decide whether to enforce federal
law in the states that have rejected the substance of the law.
This is fascinating because this
begins up to colliding conflicts for political thought in America: federalism
and moralism. The Feds seek to limit the power of the federal government
compared to the states and individuals, and urge a very “hands off” approach”.
On the contrary, moralists strongly believe in the strong maintenance of social
order and continual enforcement of federal laws. There is almost a near overlap
between federal and state narcotics laws now.
The Great Map, new for the 2012 election, Photo courtesy: A.V. Club
I read an article on what viewers
of the 2012 presidential election liked best about the election coverage. This review
was done by the A.V. Club and I found it really fascinating actually. I watched
the election last night, as did millions of other curious Americans to see who
would be their president for the next four years. I found some of the new
technology used to show the public who was winning each state in the Electoral
College to be quite interesting. I really liked how CNN used the skating rink
outside of 30 Rock into a giant map of the United States and then filled in
each state with the appropriate colors as the results came in.
With Taylor Swift’s latest album released, Red has become
produced much controversy over her in the music world. People no longer believe that her music is
strictly country anymore. Her new songs still interest many listeners,
especially those of the younger generation but no longer are of the country
genre. After reading the article, In
Defense of Taylor Swift and Gen-Y Music, you cannot blame the talented and
open-hearted young lady for making such likeable songs. According to Nathan
Wisnicki, that is why we are having a hard time dealing with Taylor Swift.
Swift as both a composer and songwriter
is becoming both more specific and universal at the same time. She is now
moving away from the traditional “true country” she was originally associated
with and moving towards the interest of the today’s listeners. Taylor at age 22
is truly artistry in the making, already being one of the finest record-makers
in the world. Swift everything she can
to create realistic songs the vast majority of us can relate to. I personally
was always a Taylor Swift fan, simply because the uniqueness of her lyrics. I
don’t like to consider myself the traditional teen pop music fan but I do like
Swift’s first number one hit, “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
Throughout the article, author
Nathan Wisnicki points out that Taylor Swift is really truly something special
to the music world. She is not just popular, but very popular with today’s
demographics and teenage girls. With her latest album now out, I proves she is
no long just country, but transitioning into the pop culture too. However, I don’t
think her fans will complain one bit since she is just renovating the way we
see her music.
"Call It"- No Country for Old Men Courtesy:Youtube
I
choose to watch the film, No Country for
Old Men. This movie was really an action packed thriller that had a lot of
strange surprised. The film was directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, which do an
excellent job making it seem like you are right there in the drama yourself. The
film is based around the main character, Llewelyn Moss incidentally comes
across a Texas dope deal gone horribly wrong, where he finds a briefcase with
two million dollars in cash in it and decides to protect it with his life. This
is when Llewelyn begins an everlasting chase with a crazy psychopathic killer.
This movie isn’t just your typical crime plot, there is a couple times when I
was found myself in utter shock from what happened in the movie.
One of my most favorite movies of
all time would have to be Grumpy Old Men. Directed by Donald Petrie, I found it to be a hilarious movie everyone should see. I personally find this to be a good
movie because of its use of humor and how well I can relate to the movie. I
think I like the movie so well simply because John and Max, longtime buddies
are constantly playing cruel jokes on each other. The movie is a romantic
comedy so there are many cultural elements in it. There are no such things as
moral codes and assumptions when it comes to John and Max, that’s why this
movie is so different than others. The prejudices they reference about gender
and class are the best. Mainly because the two are fighting over a lady, and at
their ages it is really funny. I really like the part when Max uses his truck
to push John’s ice shack towards open water with John in it yet. I find this
part to be really connecting with me because the movie takes place in northern Minnesota,
and normally they don’t make movies about the bizarre things that go on up north.
I
like how the two guys are always arguing, competing, and insulting each other. They
do this no stop with most of us can relate to people in our own reality. I
found there to be one moral code in this movie too. Both men respected each
other, even though they were constant playing pranks on another. They respected
each other enough actually that they helped each other our financially actually
when it was needed. This can teach us, as the audience an important life lesson
on how to live with no regrets. Since
the movie is a comedy it is hard to watch seriously but there are important
lessons to be learned from it.
After
reading the article David Maraniss wrote about the Packer versus Seahawks game
I now feel if I’m not alone. I feel the same way about the brutal game as he
says he does. I think that it is cool how he starts the article saying how it
is strange to hear Sheldon Adelson quoting Vince Lombardi as his philosophical
inspiration. Adelson announced that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only
thing. This is contradictory to what old coach Lombardi taught and more
importantly believed. I thought this was a very good introduction especially
after seeing everybody Monday morning, and how everybody has in a mad and
bummed mood.
I
think it was clever of Maraniss to what he asked next. Maraniss himself stated
that after twelve hours he calmed down and remembered that it was only a
football game. But more importantly, it brought a question to his mind. So was
winning the only thing? I think this a really good question we should ask
ourselves after any game. It is only human nature to see what we want to see in
life. That is why it is hard to take a loss. We have a natural instinct in us
that wants us to always win and succeed.This is why we tend to argue in favor of our side no matter what. In
terms of Monday night, argue and complain about the replacement referees.
I
like what Maraniss says next the most out of the article. He says he visceral
dislikes scabs, and considers the replacement refs just that. Then he says he
enjoys rooting for the Packers, who are owned by citizens, the only publicly
owned institution in American professional sports. How cannot you be proud to
consider yourself part of that? What really got him and I strongly agree with
this myself was how the refs, Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson acted after the
mind-boggling call we all seen. None of these people questioned the call their
peers just made because it was in their favor. Everyone seen the same play and
was dumb founded by it didn’t speak up unless it was against their team. This
is when he tells how Wilson called the ending a tough call in an interview
after the game. Wilson called the ending a “a tough call” but in reality there
was nothing tough about it at all. In reality, to say that was a touchdown and
not an interception is like saying black is white.
I
really like how Maraniss sums up his article the most. He says I never believed
that winning is the only thing and either did Vince Lombardi. He then made it
clear that Lombardi was harder on his team when they played poorly but won than
if they played well but lost.That is
why I found what he said last the most true, even if he was Carroll or Wilson
on Monday night, he would have felt compelled to see the truth and talk about
it.He then says I would have had a harder
time sleeping with that sham on my conscience than with the anger of the call
going the other way.In conclusion, the
score will forever stand and cannot be changed. But more importantly, we can remember
that winning isn’t everything, and learn to watch our actions before they are
made into history.
